Syrian army kills 62 rebels east of Damascus

[pampango]

5. Interestingly this victory for Assad's army was reported by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights,

"a monitoring group opposed to President Bashar al-Assad", which some have accused of being a propaganda arm of the opposition. The SOHR has reported on rebel defeats and abuses committed by rebel factions, while neither SANA, the state news agency, nor the army's press releases ever mention government defeats or abuses.

More than 100,000 people have died in Syria's civil war and millions have been displaced. Protesters took to the streets in March 2011 to call for democratic reforms but were fired on by security forces, leading to an armed uprising.

The army has made efforts to secure the capital and its links to the western coast while the rebels have overrun much of the north and east.